Tohill impresses in Mondello
Derek Tohill leads Patrick O'Donovan on his way to winning the Supercar final at Mondello Park at the weekend (Photo: Barry Cregg)

Tohill impresses in Mondello

REIGNING Irish rallycross champion Derek Tohill took his maiden win of the new season at Mondello Park on Sunday.

The all new look Partsforcars.ie IRX series saw a bumper supercar entry with former champion John McCluskey making a return to the sport in a two car team with Kildare circuit racer Michael Leonard.

Both men driving Ford Fiesta’s similar to Tohill’s and being run by the Murray Motorsport team are a welcome addition to the series this year.

This year’s series has a new format which sees the nine round championship compacted into five weekends over the year with four being double headers and one overseas trip to Pembrey in Wales.

For the first round on Saturday, competitors had a new track layout.

Turn 3 on the racing circuit was now added in.

This gave drivers a chance to really stretch the legs of their 600bhp supercars.

Visiting from the UK for the first two rounds at the weekend was Patrick O’Donovan in his Proton Iriz RX.

The British rallycross champion was no stranger to Mondello Park having competed during the British round at the county Kildare circuit last year.

The top two did not disappoint and over the two days battled it out tooth and nail.

Both winning their semi-finals on Saturday and lining up on the front row together to battle it out for round one of the championship.

However they had not accounted for Michael Leonard who had been making steady progress during the day.

As the first three entered turn one O’Donovan tried to sweep round the outside of his two rivals but was pushed wide by Tohill and Leonard who got ahead on the inside.

Leonard held the field behind exiting turn 3 and settled into the lead.

As the race ran on it looked like his rallycross debut was going to end in victory, but as he exited the joker lap section on the final lap O’Donovan got past narrowly but ran wide and Leonard got back past on the run to the final corner.

Tohill could only watch from a distant third place uncharacteristically off the pace of the front two.

As the O’Donovan and Leonard exited the final turn O’Donovan took the inside line and won the drag to the line to take round one of the series.

An exciting end that warmed up fans on a bitterly cold day.

Sunday brought sunshine and eager to make up for the day before Terenue’s man Tohill was out to take the top spot.

O’Donovan however was in flying form taking victory in the heats, but Tohill was not far behind.

Leonard, McCluskey and local man Tommy Graham were also there in the hunt if anything happened the top two.

There was a different track layout this time as it was back to the normal rallycross track using the famous ‘hole in the hedge’ corner this time out.

As the lights went out to start the supercar final it was O’Donovan who got the better start and lead into turn one but running slightly wide gave Tohill the invitation to take the inside line and make his way past on the run to turn two.

He led on the exit and had to drive inch perfect to keep O’Donovan at bay.

This he duly did and no matter how hard the British champ tried he could not find a way by the Irish champ.

It was a hot paced race and the front two pulled clear of the rest of the field easily.

Sadly Leonard had to retire with mechanical trouble.

A shame for the local man on his debut weekend. McCuskey took third position and drove well for someone only getting back into the sport after a long layoff.

Turn one is a fast righthander after the main straight and when the gravel has been cleared back after the opening laps, it allows corner speed to be carried much higher.

It was a sight to behold seeing the Ford and Proton drifter through it with their turbos whistling overtime as the power was being put down.

Once Tohill got the first couple of laps over he began to pull a slight gap and gave himself enough of a cushion on the final lap to take the joker lap in comfort.

He crossed the line 1.5 seconds ahead of O’Donovan to take the win with McCluskey in third.

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